Biden argues Trump remains a threat to democracy — a case his campaign thinks resonates with voters

PHILADELPHIA — President Joe Biden kicked off the election year on Friday by setting his focus squarely on what he sees as the threat to democracy posed by Donald Trump — a return to his “home base,” advisers say, that demonstrates the urgency his campaign sees in addressing his likely general election opponent.

His speech marked one of his most forceful public rebukes of the former president yet, at times crescendoing to a shout as he laid into his rival's "assault on democracy" and threats to American institutions.

"I'll say what Donald Trump won't: Political violence is never, ever acceptable in the United States," Biden said, flanked by nearly a dozen American flags and red, white and blue lights.

"It has no place in democracy," he added. "None."

The crux of the speech focused directly on Trump, arguing that his opponent would upend democratic norms, centering his argument around the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The president argued that Trump's actions on Jan. 6 were "among the worst derelictions of duty by a president in American history."

"Donald Trump's campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future," Biden said earlier in the speech. "He's willing to sacrifice our democracy, put himself in power."

The president was met by chants of “four more years” as he took the stage, and the roughly 30-minute speech received a standing ovation.

It was Biden's first campaign speech of the year — at only the third public campaign event since he announced his re-election bid in April — near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where George Washington and the Continental Army endured a brutal winter during the fight for American independence.

Biden stopped at Valley Forge National Historic Park on the way to his speech, taking a